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California Department of Education
Executive Office
SBE-003 (REV.09/2011)
dsib-adad-mar17item04 / ITEM #05
/ CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
MARCH 2017 AGENDA

SUBJECT

California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress: Update on Program Activities Related to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress System. / Action
Information
Public Hearing

SUMMARY OF THE ISSUE(S)

This item provides a summary of the main events and developments related to the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System, including, but not limited to, the Smarter Balanced Summative and Interim Assessments, the Smarter Balanced Digital Library, the California Science Test (CAST), the California Alternate Assessments (CAAs), and the California Spanish Assessment (CSA).

Current Highlights

  • The state testing window for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments began on January 9, 2017.
  • In January and February 2017, the second annual CAASPP Institute was held in six locations across California.
  • One-day Pretest Workshops were conducted in sixteen locations throughout the state in January and February. The full schedule of the Pre-Test Workshops, along with the number of attendees at each workshop, appears in Attachment 1.
  • In January 2017, the California Department of Education (CDE) conducted an in-person CAASPP Stakeholder meeting, and provided information on the development of the CAST, CAA for Science, and CSA; and further input on the selection criteria for accountability growth model.

2016–17 CAASPP Institute

In January and February, the CDE-sponsored CAASPP Institute was conducted at six sites throughout the state. The purpose of the CAASPP Institute was to provide professional development to teams of local educational agency (LEA) staff on how to best use all components of the CAASPP System to improve teaching and learning. The focus of this year’s Institute, which was jointly developed by the CDE and the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), was on “digging deeper.”Several breakout sessions were offered, including:

  • Fostering a balanced assessment system
  • Creating a standard process for identifying students for designated supports
  • Using the Smarter Balanced Teacher Guides effectively
  • Using interim assessments to support teaching and learning
  • Using universal tools, designated supports, and accommodations in daily classroom practice
  • Providing designated supports for English learners (ELs)
  • Implementing formative assessment practices using the Digital Library

Nearly 1,500 LEA staff members representing approximately 500 LEAs participated in this training. In March, the CDE will post institute materials online.

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Self-Registration for the Digital Library

In December 2016, Smarter Balanced launched a Digital Library self-registration Web interface which is available through the existing Digital Library login page at This new interface allows LEA staff to create a Digital Library account, without the assistance of their LEA CAASPP coordinator, as long as their e-mail address is affiliated with an LEA. LEA staff with a non-LEA-specific e-mail domain (e.g., gmail.com, yahoo.com) will not be able to self-register but may still be given access via their LEA CAASPP coordinator. A tip sheet to assist LEA staff with the self-registration interface was made available in January on the CAASPP Portal at

New Additions to Digital Library Resource Collections

New grade- and content-specific Digital Library resource lists continue to be added to the CDE Instructional Learning Series and the Smarter Balanced Digital Library Connections playlists.These two playlist collectionsare designed to connect educators with Digital Library content that relates directly to content in specific Smarter Balanced Interim Assessment Blocks (IABs). The Instructional Learning Series playlists focus on helping teachers prepare students to take an IAB,andthe Digital Library Connections playlists focus on helping teachers provide instruction to students based on their performance on an IAB.

Recent additions to the Instructional Learning Series include playlists for two Grade 3 IABs—Read Literary Texts and Operations and Algebraic Thinking, and recent additions to the Digital Library Connectionsinclude playlists for three high school IABs—Brief Writes, Revision, and Statistics and Probability.All of the resource lists in both series are available on the CDE Digital Library Resource CollectionsWeb page at

Digital Library Workshop

In February 2017, Smarter Balanced hosted a State Network of Educators (SNE) member workshop in Houston, Texas to support further development of the Smarter Balanced Digital Library. During the workshop, SNE members focused on developing, submitting, and reviewing proposed resources for inclusion in the Digital Library; members of the State Leadership Team, which is comprised primarily of staff from state education agencies, provided support to SNE members and continued planning for the development of future Digital Library playlists. California educators represented 17 of the approximately 100 workshop participants.

Smarter Balanced Strategic Planning

The Smarter Balanced Consortium, which includes California as a governing member, are collaborating on a strategic plan that describes a vision for the future of the Consortium. The plan includes strategies that will serve both to enhance the current high-quality assessment system and guide investments in innovation that will ensure Smarter Balanced continues to be a leader in assessment.

The plan is being developed based on interviews with industry thought leaders, researchers, Consortium Members, and other stakeholders. The draft plan will be presented to members at the Consortium’s annual collaborative conference. After the conference, any final concerns will be resolved and the consortium members will vote to adopt the plan.

Accessibility Supports Data

The Assessment Development and Administration Division (ADAD) has recently updated the CDE California Assignment of Designated Supports and Accommodations Web page at with new data on the assignment of accessibility supports available to students for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for grades three through eight and grade eleven for English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics. Designated Supports are available to all students when determined for use by an educator or team of educators (with parent/guardian and student input, as appropriate) or specified in the student’s individualized education program (IEP) or Section 504 plan. Accommodations must be permitted on CAASPP tests to all eligible students if specified in the student’s IEP or Section 504 plan.

The updated data files cover the 2014–15 and 2015–16 administrations of the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments and provide data on the assignment of designated supports and accommodations to EL students and non-EL students. The data include:

  • Statewide totals by grade of unduplicated students who were assigned at least one designated support or accommodation.
  • Statewide totals by accessibility support of designated supports and accommodations assigned to students.
  • District totals by accessibility support of accommodations and designated supports assigned to students.
  • School totals by accessibility support of accommodations and designated supports assigned to students.

CAASPP Federal Peer Review

On June 10, 2016, the CDE submitted evidence to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for peer review of the Smarter Balanced assessments as delivered through the CAASPP System. The CDE received notification of the outcome of the peer review process on January 18, 2017. Based on the evidence provided, the following determinations were made:

  • Reading/language arts (R/LA) and mathematics general assessments in grades three through eight (Smarter Balanced): Substantially meets requirements
  • Reading/language arts and mathematics general assessments in high school (Smarter Balanced): Substantially meets requirements

The designation of “Substantially meets requirements” means that the evidence provided for peer review met most of the requirements of the statue and regulations but some additional information is required. The CDE is expected to provide this additional information within one year. ADAD staff will analyze the peer review notes and will begin collecting additional information to submit to the ED. The CDE is working with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to address elements concerning the development of the Smarter Balanced assessments. Peer review notes were provided both for the California submission and the separate submission by Smarter Balanced. The letter from the EDcan be found on the Decision Letters on Each State's Final Assessment System Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Web page at

Technology Update

The CDE continues to assist the K–12 High Speed Network (K12HSN) with the implementation of the Broadband Infrastructure Improvement Grant (BIIG) programs, which are designed to assist schools in improving their connection to the Internet to administer computer-based assessments. As of December 2016, 139 sites from the first round of funding have been completed, with data passing through the circuits. There are an additional5 sites with circuits installed waiting for equipment, and 26 sites with work in progress. So far, twenty-one sites are proceeding with technical solutions procured through the second round of funding. In total, 182 unique sites are moving forward in the second round of BIIG funding.

California Alternate Assessments for English Language Arts and Mathematics

The final summary report for the CAASPP spring 2016 administrations, which included the results for the CAAs for ELA and mathematics for grades three through eight and grade eleven, were released to the public on December15, 2016. The public can access the 2015–16 CAASPP summary reports on the CDE CAASPP Reporting Web site at The Web site displays the state-, county-, district-, and school-level CAASPP reports for the spring 2016 administrations.

In December 2016, the 2015–16 CAA Student Score Reports for ELA and mathematics were distributed to LEAs. Samples of the Student Score Reports (SSRs) in English and Spanish are available on the CDE CAASPP Student Score Report Information Web page at Also available are the following CAA resources:

  • Guides to understanding the CAA Student Score Reports are available in English, Spanish, Armenian, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Hmong, Korean, Pilipino (Tagalog), and Vietnamese. The guides can be found on the CDE Understanding theCAASPP Student Score Reports Web page at
  • The Understanding the California Alternate Assessment Student Score Report video is available in English and Spanish. The English and Spanish versions can be found on the CDE YouTube Channel at respectively.

On January 9, 2017, the CDE released CAA training and practice tests for ELA and mathematics on the CAASPP.org portal on the Practice and Training Test Web page at New this year is the CAA practice tests, which are grade and content specific. Scoring rubrics for the CAA practice tests will be provided in March. Also posted are updated CAAs non-grade specific training tests for each content area of the CAAs for ELA and mathematics.

In January 2017, the CDE released the CAA Test Examiner Tutorial video on the Administration of the CAASPP System Summative Assessments—Training Videos and Webcasts Web page at The CAA Test Examiner Tutorial is a stand-alone training module designed for test examiners who will administer the CAAs for ELA, mathematics, and science. Test examiners will have access to detailed training for the CAAs for ELA, mathematics, and science. Upon completion, test examiners who complete this self-directed training will receive a certificate.

Development of the Pilot Test for the California Science Test

All LEAs will administer the pilot CAST as part of the 2016–17 CAASPP administration. The CAST is the default science test for eligible students in grades five and eight and once in high school students. For the 2017 pilot test, high schools have been assigned a grade in which to administer the CAST. The CDE, in collaboration with ETS, made the high school grade assignment and are available on the CAASPP Portal at LEAs will be able to access the CAST on March 20, 2017, via the Test Delivery System (TDS). This year’s pilot testing for CAST will have the following accessibility features available: American Sign Language, Braille, text-to-speech, and print-on-demand. The CDE understands these supports are limited but is committed to expanding the accessibility features for the operational testing phase. In a separate March 2017 item, the CDE will recommend changes to the permanent regulations for State Board of Education (SBE) approval to begin the rulemaking process. The changes to the permanent regulations include the recommended specific universal tools, designated supports, and accommodations for CAST that will be available when the CASTis fully operational.

LEAs, parents, students, and stakeholders have an opportunity to experience the CAST through a training test, which was available in early February 2017. The training test includes items and performance tasks for grades five, eight, and high school, and is available on the CAASPP.org Web portal on the Practice and Training Test Web page at The training test includes a sample of the different item types that will be on the CAST pilot test. These training test item types include: multiple-choice, drag and drop, and constructed response, including calculations and graphing.

The CDE has been collaborating with our contractor, Educational Testing Service (ETS), and California educators to continue the ongoing efforts in test item development for pilot, field, and operational testing. Due to the complexities of the standards and the innovative approaches used for the development of CAST, testing experts from the CDE, ETS, and California science educators have extensively reviewed the CAST pilot test items. There have been 8 workshops and meetings where 129 California educators, along with CDE and ETS experts, have convened to review the test items presented in the CAST. Given this is a pilot test year, the CDE and ETS understand the importance of this assessment and have reached out to our stakeholders, seeking their review and feedback on the test items. These extra review efforts are important and necessary for CAST—to confirm alignment of items with the highly complex CA NGSS. The CDE and ETS are committed to developing processes to ensure the items are aligned to the Performance Expectations, Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts to ensure these items are of the highest quality. Additionally, per recommendations from stakeholders and California educators, ETS is making concerted efforts to develop environmental, health-related, and integrated items that align with the Performance Expectations. The CDE will recommend the CAST field test blueprints for SBE approval in July 2017.

In addition, the CDE is collaborating with ETS to develop short informational videos for the CAST and the CAA for Science. These videos will be geared toward educators with educator testimonials about the CA NGSS and include the purpose of the CAST and CAA for Science. Both CAST and CAA for Science videos will be available in late March 2017. The ADAD is also collaborating with the Professional Learning Support Division of CDE, SBE, and the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSSEA) on the CA NGSS Statewide Rollout: Using the Science Framework to Implement the NGSS. These two-day roll-out sessions begin in May 2017and are designed to inform educators, curriculum leads, and administrators about the various topics including: Science Framework, Phenomena-Based Learning Sequences, State Assessment, and Classroom Assessments.

Development of the Pilot Test for the California Alternate Assessment for Science

The CDE and ETS collaborated with California educators on how best to assess this student population, the result is an assessment unlike any other statewide assessment. California educators were pleased with this new format that provides limited flexibility in what materials can be used so that a student can demonstrate what he/she knows on the science construct.

All LEAs will administer the pilot version of the CAA for Science to eligible students as part of the 2016–17 CAASPP administration. The CAA for Science pilot test consists of one embedded performance task (PT), which will be administered to any student with an IEP that identifies them for an alternate assessment in grades five, eight, or the assigned high school grade. The operational CAA for Science can be administered directly after a concept is introduced and taught to the students, rather than waiting for the end of year assessment.Assessing students on a concept closer to the instruction of that construct allows these students to show their knowledge, skills, and abilities and how well they understand the construct. Embedded PTs conform to the principles of universal design, offers the least restrictive environment for educators and students to produce evidence of learning, and minimizes the stressful and burdensome process for students.